Abiding I believe is the key to receiving regular and many answers to prayer. For Jesus says to us in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you desire, and it shall be done for you.”  Abiding in Christ and in His words means to continue in them, that is, to continue believing them and living by them.  Abiding also means to dwell with and to be connected to as a branch is to a vine.  I conclude, therefore, that abiding in Jesus means that we are continually dwelling with Him and perpetually letting His life flow into us just as living sap flows from a vine to its branches; hence, it means that we are always sipping and tasting and drinking in His goodness, ever being satisfied with what we need and long for.

Now it seems that there are different part of abiding. One of most basic parts is meditation on the word of God. We will call it…

The Meditation of Abiding

 The abiding Christian makes it his daily habit to read, study, and meditate on God’s Word—and he does it with a sincere heart, for he genuinely desires to get to know God and His ways. This sincere meditation has the following effect: he grows more and more to delight in God; and His Word is pleasing to him and a joy to him, so that he says with the Psalmist, “…I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold” (Ps. 119:127)!  “I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure” (Ps. 119:162).

As the abiding Christian delights in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit gives him His own desires. Guided then by His will, God shows him what He wants him to do in His kingdom, He tells him what to pray for, and He gives him the ability to pray. But above all, God gives him the joy of receiving regular, daily answers to prayer;  for he has the promise of scripture, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).

I like what E. M. Bounds says about the believer who receives daily answers to prayer: “…To pray and receive clear answers, not once or twice, but daily, this is the sure test, and is the gracious point of our vital connection with Jesus Christ.”